Summer 2024: OT 6019 Culture and Ethics
I also took allyship action outside the classroom by applying what I learned throughout this course into my personal life. While at my local fair this summer, I came across a display of a Sonoma County LGBTQI+ timeline. This lead to a wonderful opportunity to speak with an individuals who was with the organization putting up the display about their lived experiences of being gay during the 1960s and on through the 1990s in Sonoma County. While I was familiar with LGBTQ+ history in general, I realized I did not know much about the experiences of LGBTQ+ individuals within the context of Sonoma County. By hearing these lives experiences and educating myself on how different historical events impacted LGBTQ+ individuals within Sonoma County, I was able to reflect on what I can do to support this community in my local area. I walked away with a lot of resources, groups I can get involved in, and most importantly, gratitude for having the opportunity to continue this lifelong learning journey.
I wholeheartedly believe that culture and ethics is one of the most important classes that I will ever take throughout my professional career. With a deeply rooted passion for advocacy and social justice, this course resonated with me both on a personal and professional level. It provided me with the opportunity to embody what it means to be an ally through doing. This doing included actively listening to and amplifying voices that have historically been oppressed in our society, actively participating in cultural humility training, and introspection/reflection. Through both introspection and reflection, I was able to acknowledge and develop a greater awareness of my own positionally within society, the privileges I benefit from on a daily basis, as well as the implicit biases that existed within myself.
One of the highlights during this course for me was doing the cultural occupation interview. For this assignment, we were asked to pair up with someone within our personal network who is from a different culture than your own. We were then asked to interview our partner about their culture as well as the occupations they do to express their culture. The last portion of the project was to engage in one of their cultural occupations together in a way that was appropriate and mutually beneficial. I had the wonderful opportunity to interview my significant other's mom. Through this interview and observation process, I practiced cultural humility, active listening, and reflexivity. I learned so much about her and her culture, which allowed me to better understand her perspectives and experiences and strengthen the relationship between the two of us. Pictured to the left is a pair of authentic Mexican boots and a belt, which she gifted to me.
Part of this journey throughout the course was doing a lot of introspection about our own positionally within society as well as how our identities, beliefs, values, and shape how we view the world as well as the occupations we engage in. For me, this meant acknowledging and reflecting on the privilege that I have and do benefit from on a daily basis. With this acknowledgment and understanding, I can use my privilege to uplift communities that are oppressed within our society and advocate for change. During our personal narrative assignment, I reflected on growing up in Sonoma County, which is a very wealthy, rich in nature, and predominately white area. This meant that I was always in the majority and I had greater access to a variety of occupations, contributing to my sense of belonging and shaping my identity. I reflected on how Sonoma County residents, including myself, value parks and outdoor spaces as there is a lot of effort and money put into them. However the same attention, time, money, and effort are not put into improving the health of the entire community and amplifying BIPOC voices. I recognized that I also needed to be doing more in this area. As an ally and future OT, something I can and do plan on doing is getting involved in local legislation and joining community groups to support and advocate for different minority groups in my area.
This course meant a lot to me both personally and professionally and was transformative for me in many ways. Each week I spent a great deal of time working to expand my cultural knowledge and understand the experiences and perspectives of individuals who are of a different culture than my own. I believe I developed a much greater awareness around my own privilege and how deeply rooted systematic racism is. From this awareness, I was able to identify the ways that I can be a better ally and advocate effectively for POC and other communities that are oppressed/discriminated against within out society. By continuing to develop my cultural skills, expand my cultural knowledge, continuing to surround myself with different cultures and perspectives, having self-awareness and open-mindedness, considering the contexts in which I am functioning in, and actively engaging in reflection, I will be able to embody cultural effectiveness. This will be crucial for me as an occupational therapist as well, in order to provide culturally responsive care. "Responsiveness conveys the give and take nd the adjustments and reactions that occur when exploring and reacting to cultural aspects of care. Responsiveness also communicates a state of being open to the process of building mutuality with a client and accepting that the culturally-specific knowledge one has about a group may or may not apply to the person you are treating" (Muñoz, 2007 as cited by Black, 2016). I really appreciate this idea of responsiveness in that it hold the individual accountable for not only how they approach cultural aspects of care, but also how they respond do it. Providing cultural responsive care will require cultural humility and willingness to understand and change your approach to care with a client in a way that is respectful of their culture and is truly client centered.
How can the OT profession be more inclusive to promote belonging for all?
I believe the entire profession of OT has a lot of work to do in terms of being more inclusive and demonstrating cultural effectiveness. I think we need to be better at acknowledging and actively working to unpack the foundations of OT which are oriented towards the white, westernized experience and perspective. This is deeply rooted in our theories and traditional practices and by acknowledging and working to change this, we can have the important conversations that need to be had. This includes prioritizing the BIPOC voices, listening to their experiences, and reflecting on how you can be a better ally. I think we also need to uplift and actively listen to the voices BIPOC OTs to understand how we can make effective change and increase representation within the field. Finally, we can prioritize educating OTs in the different cultural approaches to intercultural interactions in order for them to embody cultural effectiveness and provide culturally responsive care (Black, 2016). Doing this will make space for BIPOC OTs to feel heard and seen and positively contribute to their sense of belonging.
To the left I have shared some photos of me and my classmates throughout our first year of our doctorate program. Creating an open, respectful, and inclusive environment, such as the one that the occupational therapy department at Dominican strives for, is a catalyst for change as I have learned so much about my peers' experiences as well as how I can be a better ally to them throughout my life.
Hitch, D., Pépin, G., & Stagnitti, K. (2014a). In the footsteps of Wilcock, part one: The evolution of doing, being, becoming, and belonging. Occupational Therapy In Health Care, 28(3). https://doi.org/10.3109/07380577.2014.898114
Wells, S., Black, R., & Gupta, J. (2016). Culture and occupation: Effectiveness for occupational therapy practice, education and research, 3rd ed. AOTA Press.